The Well-being and Job Satisfaction of Secondary CLIL and Tertiary EMI Teachers in Austria

Abstract

Previous studies have highlighted the unique challenges that may threaten the well-being of teachers in CLIL/ EMI contexts, as well as unique opportunities that may positively impact their well-being (Moate, 2011; Pappa et al., 2017; Talbot et al., 2021). Results from Talbot et al. (2021) suggest that, in the Austrian context, the well-being of secondary CLIL teachers may be more at risk than that of tertiary EMI teachers. As such, the present study aimed to investigate this notion further through a comparative survey examining the well-being and job satisfaction of secondary CLIL and tertiary EMI teachers in Austria. In total, 123 secondary CLIL teachers and 219 tertiary EMI teachers completed the questionnaire survey. Results show that CLIL teachers tended to score consistently lower on several key dimensions related to well-being than EMI teachers, while the differences in job satisfaction were far less pronounced. Thus, the findings of this study lend empirical support to the notion that CLIL teachers at Austrian secondary schools may be more at risk in terms of their well-being than their colleagues at tertiary level. The survey data also provides valuable insights into teacher beliefs associated with professional well-being. An important implication for practice is that those teachers who felt more adequately trained to teach CLIL/EMI classes tended to report significantly higher professional well-being than their colleagues at both the secondary and tertiary level.

Chinese English as a Foreign Language Teachers’ Self-Efficacy and Psychological Well-Being as Predictors of Their Work Engagement

“…To date, some researchers have inspected the impact of psychological well-being on teachers’ organizational commitment ( Salimirad and Srimathi, 2016 ; Jain et al, 2019 ), job satisfaction ( Kurt and Demirbolat, 2019 ; Hessel et al, 2020 ), job performance ( Çankır and Şahin, 2018 ; Kumar et al, 2021 ), and work engagement ( Aiello and Tesi, 2017 ; Greenier et al, 2021 ). Salimirad and Srimathi (2016) , for instance, examined the effects of psychological well-being on teachers’ organizational commitment.…”

Modelling the interplay between resilience, emotion regulation and psychological well‐being among Chinese English language teachers: The mediating role of self‐efficacy beliefs

“…Conversely, in another model of psychological well-being, Dagenais-Desmarais and Savoie (2012) divided the components of this variable into five categories: 'interpersonal fit at work', 'thriving at work', 'feeling of competency at work', 'perceived recognition at work' and 'desire for involvement at work'. Previous inquiries into this construct and its underlying components revealed that teachers' psychological well-being is tightly associated with their job satisfaction (Hessel et al, 2020), professional commitment (Peng et al, 2023) and work engagement (Kong, 2021).…”

“I Wouldn’t Say There Is Anything Language Specific”: The Disconnect between Tertiary CLIL Teachers’ Understanding of the General Communicative and Pedagogical Functions of Language

“…Data gathered in interviews with Austrian tertiary CLIL teachers in a nation-wide study on CLIL teacher well-being across educational levels [ÖNB funded project: The Subjective Well-Being of CLIL Teachers in Austria, 17136] carried out between 2017 and 2019 (see Hessel et al, 2020) showed that these teachers tend to reflect on their own foreign language competence exclusively in terms of (interpersonal) communication skills (i.e., language proficiency) outside the classroom, which they strive to improve. They seem to be unaware of the pedagogical function of language and its role in the development of students' conceptual understanding of the content they teach and, consequently, they do not express an interest in developing skills in that area.…”